Universal Credit seeks booking system to support up to 30 million appointments

Written by Mel Poluck on 25 May 2017 in News

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Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plans to create a booking system that will enable Jobcentre ‘work coaches’ to more efficiently book appointments with claimants.

DWP: booking system to be integrated into Universal Credit. PHoto by John Stillwell/PA Archive/PA Images

The DWP has launched a call for interest for suppliers that can provide the technology to create and manage around 25-30 million appointments annually across 740 Jobcentres and 10,000 DWP staff when the Universal Credit Full Service (UCFS) is rolled out next year.

The successful booking solution will provide staff location, availability and skill sets to automatically match the most appropriate available member of staff to a claimant via the Universal Credit interface.

By 2018, claimants will be able to book and manage their own appointments online via the system.

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DWP has set out other specifications for potential suppliers, including the ability to search for available appointments within a Jobcentre by channel, for example, face-to-face; by date range, appointment type and duration; and by staff attributes, for example, second languages spoken.

“The department will need a 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year system with a Service Level Agreement that provides 99.90% availability, as the appointment booking system will be supporting the UCFS which allows claimants to access their online claim at any time”, said the department.

The booking system will be integrated into the Universal Credit platforms that DWP staff already use to manage their caseload and accessed via APIs from a calendar within the user interface.

Interested suppliers can complete a Request for Information (RFI) document, available online, to help DWP understand what capabilities exist in the market.

The department will host supplier demonstrations with technology industry body techUK in London on 5 and 8 June.